by
André Chénier (1762 - 1794)
Je veux que ton retour
Language: French (Français)
Je veux que [ton]1 retour
Te paraisse bien [lent]2 ; je veux que nuit et jour
Tu m’aimes. (Nuit et jour, hélas ! je me tourmente.)
Présente au milieu d’eux, sois seule, sois absente ;
Dors en pensant à moi; rêve-moi près de toi ;
Ne vois que moi sans cesse, et sois toute avec moi.
Available sung texts: (what is this?)
• C. Cui About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)
Confirmed with Œuvres poétiques de André Chénier, Paris, Garnier Frères, 1878, Tome premier (Volume 1), page 170. Note: this is an excerpt from the third elegy, which begins "O lignes que sa main, que son cœur a tracées!" This selection has been quoted as epigraphs in books by Victor Hugo and Pierre L. C. Dumont, including the same changes employed by Cui; one of those volumes might have been his source.
1 Cui, Gilles de Fontenailles, Hillemacher: "mon"
2 Cui, Gilles de Fontenailles, Hillemacher: "long"
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by César Antonovich Cui (1835 - 1918), "Adieu", op. 32 (Sept Mélodies) no. 4, published 1886 [ voice and piano ], St. Petersburg: W. Bessel & Co. [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Hercule Gilles de Fontenailles (1858 - 1922), "Absence", published 1898 [ medium voice and piano ], Éd. Hachette & Cie [sung text not yet checked]
- by Lucien Hillemacher (1860 - 1909) and by Paul Hillemacher (1852 - 1933), "Séparation" [ tenor or soprano and piano ], from Vingt mélodies, 1er volume, no. 16, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Leduc [sung text not yet checked]
- by Charles Tournemire (1870 - 1939), "Séparation", op. 28 (1902), note: could be the wrong text for this title [sung text not yet checked]
- by Charles Tournemire (1870 - 1939), "Mélodie", 1903 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Qi Feng Wu) , copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2021-07-28
Line count: 6
Word count: 55
I long for your return
Language: English after the French (Français)
I long for your return
I’d like to appear calm; I hope night and day
that you love me. (Night and day, alas! I torment myself.)
Present among them, to be alone, to be absent;
Sleep thinking of me; dream me close to you;
See only me, and be totally with me.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2023 by Qi Feng Wu, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2023-08-23
Line count: 6
Word count: 52
